grantland blows

[dollarbill44]

I'm as upstate as they come. I love upstate NY. Spent my first 24 years in upstate. Did undergrad and grad school at Syracuse. Was born in Cooperstown, lived in New Berlin, then Johnson City, then went to SU.

Why are people getting up in arms? Upstate isn't the best place in the world, but we all still love it in spite of that fact.

I think he sums up my feelings pretty well. Upstate sucks, so what. It's our home. Suck it. We love Cuse bball.

Did everyone here just get out of sensitivity training?

I've lived a bunch of places, and upstate isn't nearly as bad as the people who live there say it is.

 

[Orangemen]

The OSU one was written by the Club Trillion blogger. If you were expecting Frank Deford, you would be disappointed.

I know exactly who wrote it, and knew it going in.

That was the first red flag.

After reading that one, and seeing the reaction to ours on here, I'm not sure what was the point of the series.

 

[Toga]

How to ruin it jerk off.

 

[PoppyHart]

Haven't read the SU piece.

Read the OSU piece, and my expectations for our piece went way down.

I know they're not supposed to be objective assessments, but the OSU piece was a stretch.

For example (paraphrasing) 'I know we lost Diebler, one of the best Big 10 shooters of all time, but between these 3 guys who arent' half as good as Diebler, we'll easily cover his production.'

And then 'We lost Buford, the heart and soul of our defense, but we have a Freshman (or soph) who's got a lot of spunk and should have no problems filling that hole for us.'

Sounds like ours was worse, though. At least the OSU homer talked exclusively about OSU hoops.

When did they lose Buford?

 

[Fireball Jr.]

i don't think i've ever read a more overwrought pompous pointless first paragraph to a sports story.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7128925/why-syracuse-win-national-championship

i don't care what you think about fracking you frackface

trash plate? roosevelt bowie? off with this hipster doofus' head.

 

[Millhouse]

The feeling I got reading this article was that it was not a sports article but more a literary piece that just happened to discuss sports. It was less about SU'11-'12 hoops than about allegedly being a sports fan in Upstate NY. I'm not a big fan of mixing sports and politics either, which is how he led off.

It's funny that he's written articles for the NYT, because while reading the opening paragraph, I was thinking that this is exactly how people in NYC view Upstate NY. He comes across as a pompous a-hole, imo.

Completely agree - first sentence is exactly it and that's what i can't stand about grantland. they want to be "the new yorker" of sports. if want to read a book, i'll go get a book

 

[arnie3]

Grantland must aspire to be Slate Magazine. This was painful to read, and pointless.

 

[Orange87]

Put me with the minority who liked it.

 

[HakAttack]

Completely agree - first sentence is exactly it and that's what i can't stand about grantland. they want to be "the new yorker" of sports. if want to read a book, i'll go get a book

Here's a solution...don't read anything posted on grantland.com.

The whole reason the site was created was to provide a merging of sports, pop culture and literary criticism/economics, etc.

If that wasn't the case, why would Chuck Klosterman and Malcolm Gladwell have written numerous pieces for it?

Don't want to read it? Go somewhere else.

 

[HakAttack]

And for what it's worth, I thought it provided an excellent synopsis of how our team went last year and Scoop's role in our season.

I really liked the article. Native upstaters who read it and were offended need to relax.

 

[Toga]

The first time I read the article I stopped after the first two paragraphs. The upstate self-loathing was way over the top and I was expecting an actual BB oriented article like was done for Carolina. Just went back and finished reading the whole thing. The guy just kept on going and going. No compliment could be given unless accompanied by a backhanded insult.

The thing that mostly pissed me off was the author making the entire piece about himself, either through half-witted upstate references (trash plate) or by being too clever by half. A really poor job.

 

[OttoMets]

It's funny that he's written articles for the NYT, because while reading the opening paragraph, I was thinking that this is exactly how people in [Western New York think people in] NYC view Upstate NY. He comes across as a pompous a-hole, imo.

Actually, it sounded more like he's a recovering redneck who is trying to distance himself from his past by taking cheap shots at Upstate in a misguided attempt at humor. Didn't strike me as a New York guy at all, and I'm surprised that that goofball has been published in the Times.

It's not like me to complain about perceived slights in these national pieces, but that Grantland piece was trash. The writer came off as a smug 22-year-old would-be hipster who thinks that playing up rude stereotypes will raise some eyebrows (which, I guess, it has).

 

[SUfanNC]

I'm as upstate as they come. I love upstate NY. Spent my first 24 years in upstate. Did undergrad and grad school at Syracuse. Was born in Cooperstown, lived in New Berlin, then Johnson City, then went to SU.

Why are people getting up in arms? Upstate isn't the best place in the world, but we all still love it in spite of that fact.

I think he sums up my feelings pretty well. Upstate sucks, so what. It's our home. Suck it. We love Cuse bball.

Did everyone here just get out of sensitivity training?

I understand what your saying and I agree there are a lot of other places that have a lot more going for it but I don't think upstate sucks either. I am not a world traveler but there are many positives about upstate and I hate when people look at the glass half empty. There may be some truthes to it but you don't have to highlight the negatives.

 

[djcon57]

I understand what your saying and I agree there are a lot of other places that have a lot more going for it but I don't think upstate sucks either. I am not a world traveler but there are many positives about upstate and I hate when people look at the glass half empty. There may be some truthes to it but you don't have to highlight the negatives.

Can you give specifics to what you felt he was highlighting in the piece as a negative?

 

[OttoMets]

Can you give specifics to what you felt he was highlighting in the piece as a negative?

Scratching lottery tickets in the shadow of an abandoned factory?

 

[Toga]

Can you give specifics to what you felt he was highlighting in the piece as a negative?

"Figuratively, it's the amount of love one could transport in the cap of an acorn with room to spare — but there's love here nonetheless."

Actually it would be easier to quote the number of things where he wasn't taking a shot. And that 's not an exaggeration.

 

[Millhouse]

Here's a solution...don't read anything posted on grantland.com.

The whole reason the site was created was to provide a merging of sports, pop culture and literary criticism/economics, etc.

If that wasn't the case, why would Chuck Klosterman and Malcolm Gladwell have written numerous pieces for it?

Don't want to read it? Go somewhere else.

i read it, decided it blows, and now i don't read it.

 

[SUfanNC]

All I'm saying be objective. If you don't like a place that is your opinion and you are entitled to it but if you are a reporter or writer I would expect to hear both positive and negative about whatever the object . I live in the south now but if I could find a job for my wife and I up there I would move back with out question.